Microfluidics is to study fluids at the microscale. It is a field that promises to reach the holy grail of "lab-on-a-chip". In analogy to shrinking a computer from the size of a room in the 1950s to a laptop today, instruments for chemical and biological analyses may be miniaturized into microfluidic devices using modern microfabrication technology.

Potential applications of the portable, miniaturized devices may include point-of-care testing (e.g., in emergency rooms), environmental monitoring, and detection of biowarfare agents in the field. In this presentation, brief review will be given on the concept of microfluidics, device fabrication, and fluid manipulation in microscale. The focus of the presentation will be on three enabling components: (1) microvalves for regulating flows, containing fluids, and isolating one region from the other in a device; (2) mixers for homogenization of reagents in biological reactions; and (3) sorter (or de-mixer) for separating and concentrating cancer cells from bodily fluids.